TY - JOUR
T1 - Moral Intuitions and Suicide Risk
T2 - Results from a National Sample of Icelandic Youth∗
AU - Silver, Eric
AU - Silver, Jasmine R.
AU - Sigfusdottir, Inga Dora
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: [email protected].
PY - 2021/6/1
Y1 - 2021/6/1
N2 - Combining insights from Moral Foundations Theory and the Durkheimian tradition, we examine the effects of moral intuitions on suicide risk. We argue that moral intuitions constitute a moral-regulative force that individuals bring with them into a range of socially structured settings and that influence their behavior independent of the structural forces in play in those settings. Focusing on Iceland, an economically advanced country with a largely secular and individualistic culture, and using data from a national sample of youth between the ages of 16 and 21 (N = 10,710), we find that group-oriented (binding) moral intuitions are associated with lower suicide risk while individual-oriented (individualizing) moral intuitions are associated with higher suicide risk. We also find an unexpected (non-linear) protective effect among respondents with strong individualizing moral intuitions, and some evidence that the effects of individualizing moral intuitions on suicide risk are conditioned by involvement in socially integrative relationships. Overall, our results suggest that the sociological study of suicide would be meaningfully improved by incorporating moral intuitions into the model.
AB - Combining insights from Moral Foundations Theory and the Durkheimian tradition, we examine the effects of moral intuitions on suicide risk. We argue that moral intuitions constitute a moral-regulative force that individuals bring with them into a range of socially structured settings and that influence their behavior independent of the structural forces in play in those settings. Focusing on Iceland, an economically advanced country with a largely secular and individualistic culture, and using data from a national sample of youth between the ages of 16 and 21 (N = 10,710), we find that group-oriented (binding) moral intuitions are associated with lower suicide risk while individual-oriented (individualizing) moral intuitions are associated with higher suicide risk. We also find an unexpected (non-linear) protective effect among respondents with strong individualizing moral intuitions, and some evidence that the effects of individualizing moral intuitions on suicide risk are conditioned by involvement in socially integrative relationships. Overall, our results suggest that the sociological study of suicide would be meaningfully improved by incorporating moral intuitions into the model.
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U2 - 10.1093/sf/soaa078
DO - 10.1093/sf/soaa078
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85091299155
SN - 0037-7732
VL - 99
SP - 1799
EP - 1826
JO - Social Forces
JF - Social Forces
IS - 4
ER -